Churchill's American Arsenal by Larrie D. Ferreiro

Author:Larrie D. Ferreiro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Large Armoured Irruptions”

That future use materialized in World War Two, when the concept of tank-carrying landing craft was revived just after the Dunkirk evacuations. During Churchill’s tenure as First Lord of the Admiralty under Neville Chamberlain, the Royal Navy had embarked on several commando raids that attacked targets in France, and (with French and Polish forces) carried out amphibious assaults in Norway. These latter were ultimately repulsed, forcing the Allies to abandon their goal of capturing the critical port of Narvik. For these raids, commandos and marines had used small craft built by Thornycroft shipyards, which could carry a few dozen troops and light vehicles, but no heavy equipment.

The need for landing craft that could also transport heavy tanks and vehicles became apparent at Dunkirk, which, in a certain sense, was an amphibious assault in reverse. The evacuation of 338,000 troops was accomplished in part with craft little removed from the rowboats at Gallipoli, but as already noted, it left tens of thousands of tanks, artillery, and vehicles behind. Churchill, now of course prime minister, realized the lack of any vessels to transport armor and equipment from the French beaches had left Britain almost defenseless. He also realized that such vessels would be needed to recapture France and Europe.

On June 6, 1940, Churchill revived his quarter-century-old idea of tank-carrying landing craft in a carefully crafted minute to his chief of staff, Pug Ismay, ordering him to submit proposals “for a vigorous, enterprising and ceaseless offensive against the whole German-occupied coastline.” In particular, Churchill wanted “flat-bottomed boats,” out of which tanks and armored vehicles “can crawl ashore, do a deep raid inland, and then back.” Over the next several weeks, not quite certain if the Admiralty or the Ministry of Supply should be in charge, he continued to hound both Ismay and his minister of supply, Herbert Morrison, for details on “what is being done about designing and planning vessels to transport tanks across the sea” and land them on beaches.6

At first, it would be neither. In July, Churchill created the Combined Operations Command, tasked with carrying out amphibious raids on the Continent using navy, army, and commando forces. This was simultaneous with the creation of the Special Operations Executive, and though both initially accomplished similar goals of laying the groundwork for a major assault, as outlined in the previously mentioned Appreciation of Future Strategy paper, the Special Operations forces were often parachuted into enemy territory, while Combined Operations focused on coastal assaults. The first director of Combined Operations was Admiral of the Fleet Roger Keyes (replaced in 1941 by Louis Mountbatten), who began expanding Britain’s amphibious capabilities from small-scale raids to “large armoured irruptions” on the Continent, as Churchill noted in The Second World War. Keyes took charge of the landing craft project, instructing his staff to work with the naval architects at the Directorate of Naval Construction to turn Churchill’s ideas into actual vessels.7

The naval architect who forged Churchill’s concept into steel was Rowland Baker, a member of the

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